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GUIDE - POSTS 



FOR THE 



SCHOOL ROOM 



FOR 



Institutes, Normal Schools, Reading Circles 
and Self-Instruction of Teachers but Es- 
pecially Intended for Young, Inex- 
perienced Country Teachers 



BY 



JUDGE BUXTOiN ROBERTSON 

■A Graduate of the University of North Carolina; A Country Teacher 
A City TeQcher; A City Superintendent; A County Superintendent 



Copyright, 1918, by 
J. B. ROBBRTSON 



^:&/. 



'TT6 7 



PRESS OF 

BURLINGTON PRINTING CO. 

BURLINGTON. N. C. 



OCT 14 1918 
©GI.A5()615r) 



TO 
THOSE TEACHERS WHO HAVE TAUGHT 

IN 

ALAMANCE COUNTY. NORTH CAROLINA 

WITHIN THE PAST ONE-HALF DOZEN YEARS 

AND 

WHO HAVE GIVEN THE AUTHOR DIRECTLY OR 

INDIRECTLY MUCH OF THE INFORMATION AND 

INSPIRATION FOR THIS LITTLE BOOK 

IT IS FRATERNALLY 

DEDICATED 



''True worth is in being, not seeming,— 

In doing each day that goes by 
Some little good — not in dreaming 

Of great things to do by and by. 
For whatever men say in blindness, 

And spite of the fancies of youth, 
There's nothing so kingly as kindness. 

And nothing so royal as truth." 

— Alice Gary. 



Contents^ 



Chapter Page 

I. The School Grounds 11 

II. The School Room and Its Equipment 17 

III. Making Ready For The Opening 23 

IV. The Daily Program 27 

V. The Teacher 34 

VI. The Assignment of The Lesson 39 

VII. Teaching The Lesson 44 

VIII. Two Kinds of Books 49 

IX. Playtime and How to Use It 52 

X. Discipline 58 

XI. The School and Its Environment 65 

XII. The Final Function of The School 69 

APPENDIX 

I. Practical Precepts 79 

II. Mottoes For The School 83 



Thou must be true thyself 

If thou the truth wouldst teach; 
Thy soul must overflow, if thou 

Another soul wouldst reach; 
It needs the overflow of the heart 

To give the lips full speech. 
Think truly, and thy thoughts 

Shall the world's famine feed; 
Speak truly, and each word of thine 

Shall be a fruitful seed; 
Live truly, and thy life shall be 

A great and noble creed. 

— Horatius Bonar. 



preface 



To present in a very plain and practical way those 
fundamental principles and those vital problems that 
are most essential for the teacher's success, is the pur- 
pose of this book. We have, therefore, intentionally 
avoided the use of technical terms known only to the 
scientist and scholar; and we purposely have not gone 
into a detailed discussion of fine-spun theories. But our 
effort has been to discuss those prominent principles of 
teaching, and those important, though problematic pro- 
cesses of every day work in the school that must be met 
and solved. It has been our plan to place guide-posts 
with pointing hands along the teacher's road, to direct 
her along the main highways of teaching that will lead 
her to success. If what has been said in this little 
volume renders to the teachers who read it such saving 
service, it shall have fulfilled the measure of its mis- 
sion. 

The Author. 
Burlington, N. 0. 

January 2, 1918. 



Oh, may I be strong and brave, today! 

And may I be kind and true, 
And greet all men in a gracious way, 
And put good things in the things I say. 

And love in the deeds I do. 

— Nixon Waterman. 



1 

THE SCHOOL GKOUNBS 

EVERY picture has its background; every story 
has its setting; and every school must have its 
campus or grounds. The school site should be 
selected not only near the center of population, and to 
take advantage of the convenience of roads, but it 
should be selected so as to have high and dry grounds 
that are reasonably level, and large enough for every 
need. The works of art can do much to overcome what 
is wanting in nature in a school site if a mistake is 
made in the selection, but let not such a large and last- 
ing mistake be made in the beginning when nature has 
been so fruitful in plenishing the earth with beautiful 
sites. 

Since no definite site has been selected for us and 
cannot be at this time, it is not within the province of 
the writer to locate and construct the different grounds 
and buildings. But we hope to set up such guide- 
posts as will warrant the right start and give such in- 
structions as will answer general questions. 

After the proper site has been selected, and selected 
large enough, every ground needed on the school cam- 

11 



12 Guide Posts For The School Room 

pus, every appurtenance belonging to the school — the 
school house seat, the well, the wood house, the out 
house, the ball ground, the tennis court, the walks, the 
drives, the grass plots, the flower beds — should all be 
seen clearly and located in the mind of some one be- 
fore the work is begun. Otherwise the whole may be 
marred in the very beginning by locating and placing 
one in the wrong place. A story is told of two boys 
who went early to bed; and soon Jim called to the 
taother to make Tom "lay over" and give him his half 
of the bed. Jim called his mother again for the same 
purpose. Tom replied that he did not have but half 
of the bed. Jim said, "Yes, but you have your half 
right in the middle so I can't get my half." If the 
school house were located in the middle of the site 
when it should not have been, it doubtless would re- 
main a mistake regardless of "ma" and ''pa" and all 
the neighbors. Therefore, select the place for every- 
thing and all things before anything is placed or built. 
The school house should be located so as to take care 
of its own interests and leave room for other things. 
Unless the grounds are large it does not leave room for 
other things to place the house in the center of the 
grounds. If the grounds are large, the center might 
be the proper place. The house should not be too far 
away nor too close to the road or street. If it is too 
close the work of the school will be disturbed by the 
travel and traffic. If it is too far away from the high- 
way, it makes the school difficult of access and it fails 
to have the prominence as a silent teacher that its im- 



The School Grounds 13 

portanee deserves. All ideal of form and all demand 
for symmetry and beauty ask that the house be set 
square with the world or straight with the road or 
street. The latter demand, to set with the highway, is 
the more imperative because the highway is seen for 
the comparison of the eye and then it is what marks 
the range and run of other things — the sidewalks, the 
fences, the plots, etc. To find a house setting corner- 
wise to all these things is to produce an uncomfortable 
feeling on any one who has in his make-up the slightest 
demand for the aesthetic and beautiful. And the wood 
house, the well house and every building that is seen to 
view should be lined up with some other building or 
road or walk or something that is near it, so as to fit 
the place it occupies and to be in place and harmony 
with its neighbors. 

I have never seen a pig pen at a school house, but I 
heard some teachers speaking not long since of getting 
a pig for the school so as to use the wasted fragments 
from dinner and thus teach economy and make a few 
dollars for the school by growing the pig into a hog. I 
encouraged the idea for I believe it worthy of practice. 
And if I were going to build a pig pen at school or 
anywhere I would want it built in line and in harmony 
with the other things about it. No child or set of chil- 
dren can afford to have their sense of order and beauty 
dulled and damaged by such a constant scene of dis- 
order and incompatibility of arrangement. 

There are few things that should be as closely con- 
sidered and as carefully guarded as the water we drink. 



14 Guide Posts Fof. The School Room 

If the water we drink is impure it means that we are 
constantly taking impurities into our system. A spring 
is a good source of pure water if it is properly protect- 
ed. But this ''if" is a large one. The location of a 
spring subjects it to the filth and impurities of the vicin- 
ity — it being in about the lowest place. Most springs 
have the circular ditch around them for protection. 
And most of these ditches are neglected. In many cases 
the foot path going to the spring treads down the ditch 
and leads the overflow directly into the spring. A well 
is preferable to a spring. The well should be arranged 
so the surface water runs away from the well instead of 
running to the well. In addition to this the well should 
have a cement top to keep out all surface water. For 
school purposes a pump is better than a bucket. When 
a bucket is used the constant opening offers the well 
as a receptacle for trash; and then the children handle 
the bucket and rope or chain with dirty, contaminated 
hands and send them, again down into the water. 

Out-houses have been much neglected in our rural 
schools. They are not only a convenience but an ab- 
solute necessity. The exposure of both sexes at all ages 
due to the want of them is a generator of immorality. 
We often speak of the colored race having a low stand- 
ard of virtue. Any race that lives in a crowded con- 
dition as the colored race, where all sexes and all ages 
are housed together and exposed to each other, will 
have a low standard of virtue and morality, no matter 
what the color may be — black, brown, or white. Then 
the out-houses are ■ not onlv actual necessities and con- 



The School Grounds 15 

veniences, but without them we defeat in a very seri- 
ous way the purpose of the school. 

Another neglected necessity at the school is the wood 
house. Most of our schools are taught in the winter 
season when the weather is cold. This means we must 
have fuel of some kind. With the winter weather comes 
rain and snow — sometimes for days and weeks without 
ceasing. The wood, without the wood house, is wet and 
unsuited for the fire. Think how much work and worry 
there may be and exposure to diseases, robbing the school 
of time if half an hour or an hour is taken each day on 
account of wet wood. A wood house that will cost a 
very little will save the time and trouble. 

After the grounds have been planned and plotted 
and buildings all erected, the next thing to do is to keep 
the grounds clean and in order. Did you ever realize 
when traveling that you were nearing a school house 
because you found heaps of scrap paper along the high- 
Yi^ay for half a mile? And wiien you reached the school 
you found the grounds littered with paper, the wood 
pile and the ash pile near the front door, both in the 
edge of a brush pile, and several shade trees hacked in 
an ugly fashion? If you have seen this sight, I hope 
you may never see it again. It is just the opposite of 
what should greet you at the school house. The grounds 
should be kept free from such litter and rubbish all the 
time. And on approaching the school grounds you and 
every child should have that refined feeling for better 
tilings that comes from looking on clean yards, beauti- 
ful trees, edged walks, and well-kept grass plots and 



16 Guide Posts For The School Room 

flowers There is nothing more demoralizing than bad- 
ly kept premises. There is nothing more inspiring and 
refining than well-kept premises. We are a part of all 
that we see. 



II 

THE SCHOOL: EOOM AND ITS EQUIPMENT 

THE school room should be large enough to con- 
tain a certain number of rows of desks with 
sufficient aisles on each side of every row and 
without wasted space. If double desks are used 
a space six feet wide should be provided for 
each row. In other words a room should be 
twenty-four feet w^ide to contain four rows of desks, 
eighteen feet to contain three rows of double desks. 
If single desks are used, four feet should be provided 
for each row, in order to have ample room. On this 
basis the room twenty-four feet wide would seat six 
rows. In seating a given room with single desks, you 
cannot seat nearly as many pupils as seen by the num- 
ber of rows of desks. However, the single desks are 
preferable for proficient service, but not from the 
standpoint of economy of space or economy of cost. A 
given style of desk that costs $3.00 for double, the 
single costs about $2.40, and seats only half as many. 
The school room should be so constructed, and the 
desks so placed that the light comes from one side (pre- 
ferably the left) or the back or the left and back both. 

17 



18 Guide Posts For The School Room 

Cross lights are injurious to the eye and should not be 
in a school room. In no event should the desks be ar- 
ranged so the student looks directly toward a window; 
but on the other hand the desks should be arranged so 
that the students' eyes rest upon some wall or shaded 
surface. 

This leads us to consider the walls of the room and 
the interior patiiting. The appearance of the inside of 
the school room should claim our special attention. How 
deadening and dangerous is the dark and dirty school 
room ! How inspiring and refining is the painted well- 
kept room, decorated with suitable pictures. Let the 
necessary cleaning always precede decoration. There 
should be in each room some prevailable color scheme. 
If this is not easily carried out in full it should be kept 
in the main b}^ avoiding anything with a color that is 
entirely out of harmony. If the room is properly 
lighted, (the window space equaling one-sixth to one- 
fourth the floor space) a light gra^^ or light green is one 
of the best colors. A light green is preferable. A soft 
white is good where and only where much light is de- 
sired. 

Select pictures to suit the grade and the kind of work 
that is done. Select pictures to suit the life of the grade 
or grades of pupils, and pictures that lead into the life 
that you want the students to live. Pictures teach. A 
story is told that a mountain boy went to sea, and very 
much against his mother's will. She lamented and 
lamented his going. She not only regretted his going, 
but she was puzzled to know why he wanted to go. She 



The School Room and Its Equipment 19 

soliloquized: ''Why did my mountain boy want to go 
to sea?" And she gazed upon the wail of her room as 
she sorrowed and only to see a picture of a ship with 
sails set and tossing upon a surging sea. The explana- 
tion was found. Pictures teach. Be careful in their 
selection. No picture should go up because it is a pic- 
ture only. It should have some merit. Its merits should 
be explained and known and admired and appreciated. 

Good taste never overdoes anything. Too many pic- 
tures can be put into a room. Too many pictures can 
be put into an art gallery. Certainly too many can be 
put into a school room. Select some, not too many, 
arrange them from the student 's point of view, and not 
the teacher's. 

Nothing is better for school room walls than well- 
chosen mottoes and epigrams.* They impress great 
truths upon the minds of the children that are never 
forgotten. They often become principles that reign in 
the mind and rule the life for good forever. No normal 
person can come face to face with a fundamental truth 
so concisely and so clearly stated that it lingers in the 
mind without being benefitted. Let the walls of every 
school room be feeders of truth as well as the books, by 
bearing in bold type beautiful and aptly chosen truths. 

All modern school rooms must be amply provided 
with blackboards to do effective work. The teacher 
must have room to demonstrate her work to the pupil 
and the pupil must have room also to put his work 
where all may see and learn. The blackboards should 

*See chapter II of appendix. 



20 Guide Posts For The School Room 

be at the front of the room and as nearly to the front 
as can be. Hyloplate, which is a pulp material about 
three-eighths of an inch in thickness, with a smooth 
surface, is one of the best and one of the most used 
boards. It is sold at about one dollar per square yard. 
Slated cloth, which is not so good, can be bought for 
about one-half the cost of hyloplate. If you have a 
smooth wall you can paint a board black with black- 
board paint that will give you fair service at a minimum 
cost. One dollar's worth of blackboard paint that can 
be secured in almost any town will paint board enough 
for the average school room or more. 

Eostrums are often not used in school rooms. But 
by the use of a rostrum a teacher can see more and save 
energy — a commodity very much in demand. A port- 
able rostrum is usually the most practical. This type 
can be suited to different needs. For example : The 
rostrums in a building, if portable, may be collected and 
formed into one large rostrum for special occasions. 

Every school room should have its windows weighted 
and provided with shades. This is especially true of 
windows exposed to the southern light. Northern light 
is preferable for a school room, as it is free from the 
bright glare of the sun. But to regulate the light of 
the room properly, all windows should be shaded. If 
the room is improperly lighted by having cross lights, 
the teacher can offset the bad effects by keeping the 
shades down on one side of the room — especially those 
near the front. Window shades are very important and 
cost very little. 



The School Room and Its Equii»ment 21 

The stove, if a stove must be used, should be selected 
with regard to the size of the room. It is often custom- 
ary to put the stove in the center of the room. To lo- 
cate the stove in the center of the room does not econo- 
mize space. It economizes space to locate the stove be- 
tween the desks and the teacher's place or at the rear 
of the room. It is economy of money to buy a cast iron 
stove instead of a sheet iron heater. The heater will 
cost half as much and will not, as a rule, last one-fourth 
as long. 

Ever.y stove pipe should be made as long as possible 
to increase the radiation in the room and to decrease 
the danger of destro^'ing the house by fire. No stove 
should have its pipe leading directly to a flue right 
over it — and especially where the ceiling is low. In- 
crease the length of your pipe, put in a damper and 
thus increase your heat and decrease danger. 

A stove box was the old means used for protecting 
the floor from the fire in the stove. And how often it 
was the recipient of all the trash — hulls, paper, bis- 
cuits, bones — and a sight 1?p behold it wasv and "altogether 
dirty. It was the cuspidor of the school ; and it was a 
genuine germ generator generally at work. If a stove 
box is to be used it should be kept clean. I would rec- 
ommend sheet iron instead of the box. 

A waste box, or better, a waste basket should be part 
of the equipment of every school room. Let it be pass- 
ed twice or three times a day to collect the students^ 
waste paper and in this way keep the paper from be- 
ing scattered on the floor. 



22 Guide Posts For The School Boom 

To help keep down dust, and hence to render the 
room more clean and sanitary, and to make sweeping 
easier, and to avoid the spread of diseases, oil the floor 
of the school room. Few if any other sort of living 
rooms are subjected to so much dust as the school room. 
Each pupil brings in a certain amount of dirt to be 
dried into dust. Desks become dirty, books and hands 
soiled, and disease germs go flying on their deadly mis- 
sion. Offset these effects and render sweeping easy by 
oiling the floor. Four gallons of oil will be worth many 
dollars in preventing dust, protecting property and pre- 
serving life. 



ni 

MAKIHG READY FOR THE OPENING 

THERE is much truth in the ancient adage, ''Well 
begun is half done." Some one has asked the 
question: "When should you begin to train a 
child?" The answer most generally accepted is: "One 
hundred years before it is born." Many other signi- 
ficant truths might be recited to emphasize the value of 
a good beginning and the importance of beginning in 
time. 

''Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 

The saddest are these: 'it might have been.' " 



Often there have been sad failures by not starting 
in time. 

No teacher young or old, can afford to take chances 
on beginning a school term too late by not "Making 
ready for the opening." To take such a chance fre- 
quently means to meet defeat in the face when you do 
begin. Every teacher should go to the community in 
which she is to teach several days before the opening 

23 



24 Guide Posts For The School Room 

and make ready. She should secure the school census 
and locate and learn every pupil and every patron be- 
fore the opening day. A good plan would be fo^ her to 
take the census. But if she does not do this, she should 
make just as close canvas of the district. 

It may not be a part of the teacher's duty to set the 
house in order ready for the opening. But no teacher 
can afford to let the opening day come without the 
house in order. The house should be ready, clean, in- 
viting, and inspiring the very Jfirst day. It is so neces- 
sary that the pupils be taken into a room of this kind 
the first morning, that no teacher can afford not t > 
make sure that the house has been set in order for the 
opening day. 

Visit the Superintendent. Get the information he 
has about the past year and the instruction he has for 
the coming year. Carry from the office the old and the 
new record books. Learn what has been done and thus 
determine what is to be done. Ascertain as far as pos- 
sible the names of all the children who will be present 
the first day. With this list and last yearns register the 
school can be fairly well graded and a tentative pro- 
gram can be made before the school opens. All this 
will enable the teacher to make the first day's work 
effective, save the day, and make the proper impression 
for all time. 

Nothing inspires hope and confidence in the teacher 
more than for her to know that she has her work well 
in hand. Nothing impresses the student body for good 
more than to feel that the teacher is master of the situ- 



Making RexVdy For The Opening 25 

ation. If the teacher has made herself chief by mak- 
ing all things ready, she has started a force for good 
that will be felt through the entire school. 

There are two things that are indispensable for suc- 
cessful teaching — a knowledge of the subject, and a 
knowledge of the child. The teacher must begin to 
teach the child where he is and nowhere else. She must 
know his environment, the content and condition of 
his mind in order to know what and how to teach him. 
For the teacher to attempt to teach the child without 
this information is like the business man trying to take 
charge of a business and run it without a knowledge of 
his stock; or like the doctor who treats his patient 
without any diagnosis — it is uncertain and dangerous. 
The inventory can be made for the teacher by her visit- 
ing the pupils and this should be done before the open- 
ing. 

How to secure and hold attendance is one of the most 
significant problems confronting school teachers today. 
In many good counties in North Carolina and other 
states the enrollment is only about 75 per cent of the 
census. The average attendance is only about 50 per 
cent of the census. Attendance is a big problem and 
an important problem, and I know of nothing that will 
go so far toward solving it as early and continual visita- 
tion of parents on the part of the teacher. Visit the 
patrons to make ready for the opening. 

Visitation of parents makes the teacher ready for the 
opening again by preparing her against the evil day. A 
noted educator tells an interesting story on himself, 



26 Guide Posts For The School Koom 

how he began the work of the pedagogue soon after the 
Civil War. As he was young he taught as he had been 
taught, namely, "If you don't come to the mark, I'll 
use the rod." The first day he said he whipped six- 
teen. The second day thirty-two (mothers and fathers) 
were going to whip him. He concluded the story by 
saying that after he went around and visited those peo- 
ple, ate with them and talked with them, that many of 
them became his warm friends. If visitation makes 
friends out of rash enemies, how much more safe and ef- 
fective it would have been, had it been used as a preven- 
tion instead of a cure. Nine-tenths and more of the dif- 
fiulties between individuals and among people come 
from a misunderstanding. If we understood people, if 
we knew them as they are, we would love them better 
and appreciate their efforts more. The conduct of those 
who are in our favor is nearly always right and proper 
with us, while the conduct of those who are out of our 
favor is always wrong and improper, and our apprecia- 
tion of a deed is measured by our estimation of the 
doer. 

So in making ready for the opening, visit. It will 
teach you about the pupils with whom you must deal; 
it will help you to secure and hold attendance and it 
will prepare you for passing the rough places by plac- 
ing you in favor and understanding with the parents. . 



3y 

THE DAILY PEOGEAM 

A DAILY program is a plan of procedure. It tells 
us who, where, when, and what. With it each 
class and grade Imows what to do and when and 
where. It is a guide to system and order and work. 
E^ch and every school should have a well planned and 
well developed daily program. The following program 
will be suggestive and may render us aid in a more de- 
tailed consideration of parts and mechanism: 

8:30 Opening exercises 

8:45 Phonics 
Second grade number work 
Third grade number work 
Fourth grade arithmetic 
I^'ifth grade arithmetic 
Sixth grade arithmetic 
Seventh grade arithmetic 
Writing or drawing — All grades 

10:15 Eecess 

10:30 Fifth grade sanitation 
Phonic drill or word drill 

27 



28 



Guide Posts For The School Room 



First grade reader ^ 

Second grade reader 

Third grade reader 

Fourth grade reader 

Fifth grade History 

Sixth grade History 

Seventh grade History 

General exercises 
12:00 Dinner 
1:00 Sixth grade agriculture 

Phonic drill 

First reader and Language 

Second reader and Language 

Third reader and Langauge 

Fourth grammar 

Fifth grammar 

Sixth grammar 

Seventh grammar 
2:30 Recess 
2:45 Phonic drill (Spelling) 

Seventh grade civil government 

First grade reader (Nature study) 

Fourth grade geography 

Fifth grade geography 

Sixth grade geography 

Seventh grade geography 
Spelling off the book (2nd and 3rd grades) 
Spelling off the book (4th and 5th grades) 
Spelling off the book (6th and 7th grades) 
4:00 Dismissal 



Daily Program For The School Room 29 

Now let us give some reasons for the faith that is with- 
in us. The teacher should not only know the who where, 
when, and what, but she should know the why and he 
able to give the reason. 

First the reader will observe our program as outlined 
starts with an opening exercise, a very important item 
often omitted. Nothing can be right unless it starts 
right. A school day's program does not start right and 
is not right unless it starts with an opening exercise. 
The discussion of the opening exercise alone is the work 
of a whole volume ; and here we can only call attention 
to its place and importance. For a full discussion of 
its worth and make-up see Educational Bulletin XI 
Opening Exercise for Public Schools in North Carolina. 

This entire program is planned with the view to one 
teacher, but by increasing the number of teachers we 
can divide and decrease the number of recitations and 
increase the length of time for each recitation. If more 
than one teacher is in a given school, then we recom- 
mend that the opening exercise be held jointly or to- 
gether about half the time, and by individual rooms 
half the time. In the individual rooms we can adapt 
the exercises to the grade of the pupils and thus make 
our exercises far more instructive. But in having the 
exercise this way we lose that larger spirit of brother- 
hood, and that uplift that comes with the unity of a 
larger number. 

Next we notice that this program is built from the 
lowest to the highest grade throughout the day. This 
is done because the beginner cannot help himself, and 



30 Guide Posts For The School Room 

hence you need not wait for him to prepare — so we put 
him first. 

It is noticed at a glance at this program that we have 
grouped so as to associate all classes in a given subject 
— arithmetic, history, grammar, and geography. This 
is done for a purpose. It simplifies the program and 
by this arrangement the work of one recitation sup- 
plements and aids the other. 

"We observe also that a number of important subjects 
do not admit of such association. These subjects are: 
writing, drawing, sanitation, general exercises, agricul- 
ture, and civil government. Here each of these must 
have an individual place before or after a series of the 
other. And just where they are and why let us notice. 
Writing is put before the morning recess because it is 
then we have not agitated our nervous systems by the 
play of the recess nor the work of the day ; but we have 
used our minds over our arithmetic and we are ready 
for the reaction — for the physical to take the ascendency 
and write and let the mental recline and rest. 

Sanitation, agriculture, and civil government are 
placed in the ascending scale by grades as all other sub- 
jects — from the lowest to the highest. Each one is plac- 
ed before a regular session of sitting because this plan 
gives all other members of the school that much more 
time to prepare what is just before them. 

General exercises may take various shapes and forms 
— discussions of current events, history, or both, or re- 
citing a special reading or singing, announcements, etc. 
At any rate the general exercise is an important item 



Daily Program For The School Room 31 

and one good place for it is just before dinner. We 
gather up, we change, we rest, we get ready for dinner. 

Why is spelling placed at the close of the day? There 
are two or three reasons why this is done. Spelling can 
be recited in a few minutes, and by putting spelling at 
the last it keeps the school at work until the end of the 
day. Most students will prepare spelling that is to be 
done off the book. Again, spelling is very largely a 
memory subject. It is very largely obtained and re- 
tained by memory. But putting it last we let the mind 
carry it home unmolested by anything else. The last 
thing we learn is one of the easiest to remember. 

The question always arises, and it is a very import- 
ant one, when or in what grade should we introduce the 
sciences, the subjects to be studied as arithmetic, gram- 
mar, geography, etc. This question can not always be 
answered by giving a certain grade to take up the sub- 
jects or any one of them. The only true answer is this : 
Any subject mentioned may be taken up when the stud- 
ent has acquired ability as a reader sufficient to read 
readily the subject to be studied. To take up the sub- 
ject sooner is a mistake. To try to do anything without 
the means of doing it is futile. The means used in ac- 
quiring any subject is reading. The key that unlocks 
the whole treasure-house of knowledge is reading. But 
the student will find that he and his work will suffer if 
he tries to get the key and use it at the same time. 

**One thing at a time and that done well, 
Is a very good rule as many can tell." 



32 Guide Posts For Tee School Room 

)- 

The student, as a rule, has the required abilitj^ as a 
reader on entering the fourth grade to take these we 
will call "study subjects" in an elementary way. 

Reading should be the predominant subject till read- 
ing is acquired. This fact was kept in mind while mak- 
ing the above program. But all the primary students 
of every grade should be taught writing, drawing, lang- 
uage, spelling and number work. These things should 
be associated with the reading and let one supplement 
the other, but let reading keep in the ascendency till 
some proficiency^ in reading has been acquired. 

Let me say in conclusion something about the length 
of this program. Every teacher of average experience 
has felt the need of more time. But I am firmly of the 
opinion that no daily program should be longer than 
this one. And I believe that in the winter season, when 
the days are short and the weather cold, it could be 
made shorter to advantage. 

Many teachers feel very well satisfied with their daily 
programs except on rainy daj^s. On rainy days the 
pupils are wild ; there is no place for them to go to play, 
and they almost run the teacher wild. The teacher is 
heard to say, ''I wish I knew what to do with the pupils 
on rainy days." The following program may suggest 
a solution: 

Rainy day playtime program. 

Recesses — Excuse those who care to be, with instruc- 
tions that they go quietly and return promptly in a few 
minutes. Sing one or two songs. Raise and lower the 



Daily Program For The School Room 33 

windows and take a few moments calisthenics drill or 
similar exercise in the house — all the students taking 
part in concert with the teacher leading. 

Dinner — Have the baskets passed and have a fifteen 
or twenty-minute lunch period with students in seats 
engaging in orderly conversation supervised by the 
teacher. At the end of this peroid excuse those who 
care to be, instructed to return promptly in a few min- 
utes, and sing one or two songs. After the singing, 
raise and lower the windows, and take a few minutes 
drill in calisthenics or similar exercise quietly in the 
house. 

This program will consume about all the time for 
recesses, but it will save tv^-enty-five or thirty minutes 
from an hour dinner period. Dismiss as many minutes 
earlier in the afternoon as you saved from the regular 
play periods. 



V 

THE TEACHES 

THE one thing around which the whole business 
of the school revolves is the teacher. There is 
indeed much truth in the adage : ''As the teach- 
er is, so is the school." Some one has said that you 
could have a good school with a pupil on one end of a 
log if there was a good teacher on the other end of the 
log. We do not for one moment discount the necessity 
for equipment for good work in the school room ; but 
it is nevertheless very true that the teacher fashions, 
forms, and makes the school whatever it is in a very 
large degree. Hence we see clearly the need of a good 
tacher. 

What is the difference between a successful teacher 
and the unsuccessful teacher? Some people succeed as 
teachers; others fail. Why this difference? A signi- 
ficant question — a big question. It is too big to be 
answered briefly. And yet if I were asked to answer 
it in one word, I would say, it is a difference in person- 
ality. Then we may ask what is personality? Person- 
ality is the sum total of those distinguishing attributes 
that reveal the character. The good teacher must be 

34 



The Teacher 35 

neat and orderly in appearance, pure in thought and 
act, firm and sympathetic in all her dealings. 

Before a teacher speaks she begins to teach. Her 
appearance makes a quicker and more lasting impres- 
sion than what she says. Her very bearing and manner 
counts for much. She should by all means be neat and 
careful about her dress. There is no compromise for a 
teacher's just hanging her clothes on herself in a 
slouchy, baggy, don't care sort of style. Colors should 
blend and harmonize. If the teacher be a man he 
should by no means neglect personal attention. The 
evil effects of an unshaven face, soiled linen, an absent 
tie, unpolished shoes can never be atoned for by repent- 
ance. The teacher who is neatly and sensibly dressed, 
with bearing that is becoming a lady or gentleman, 
whose voice has a normal pitch and good qualities, will 
sell to a school before the time for active teaching be- 
gins for 100 cents in the dollar, and this appearance, if 
kept up, will aid wonderfully in keeping the market 
normal for any other wares the teacher may have to 
offer. 

She who would stand in the holy place of the teacher 
must have clean hands and a pure heart. The guiding 
principle of any person is how he thinks. ''As a man 
thinketh in his heart, so is he." The best and surest 
proof of pure thinking is pure acting. The acts of a 
person reflect upon that person and assist in the de- 
velopment of his character as well as in revealing his 
character. The would-be successful teacher must be so 
developed that she is firm and sympathetic in all her 



36 Guide Posts For The School Koom 

dealings. She must be firm to give standard and busi- 
ness tone to the work. She must be sympathetic that 
she may enter into the light and life of the child and 
lead him firmly, but kindly into the truth and right. 
Then the teacher must be both good and powerful. 

It is held by some that the teacher is born, not made. 
According to history, all people except about two have 
been born. The teachers are born as well as other folks ; 
but unless they are trained and apply themselves to 
their tasks they might as well, if not better, never have 
been born. When the master mechanic need not serve 
through the toilsome and tiresome days of apprentice- 
ship, when the specialist and expert physician need not 
be trained in the science of medicine and the art of ap- 
plying drugs to the disordered system, then the teacher 
need not be familiar with the material to be taught nor 
the method for teaching it, but may rely on the daj^ of 
her birth for her qualifications for the complex task of 
teaching the youth of the land. 

The power and skill that is necessary for the teacher 
to have in order to win success comes by her having a 
knowledge of the subject she proposes to teach and a 
knowledge of the pupils she is to teach, and then enough 
method to bring the two into vital relationship with 
each other. Such a process is teaching, and nothing 
short of this is teaching. The teacher should have a 
general knowledge of the subject and a recent and 
specific preparation of the subject and the lesson for 
consideration. Such a knowledge comes from applica- 
tion and study and not from birth. Such a knowledge 



The Teacher 37 

comes from work on the part of the teacher and not 
from birth. Such a knowledge comes from work on the 
part of the teacher and not from wasting time, revel- 
ling, and in riotous living. See that teacher who knows 
her subject from such application to the work before 
her and you see that teacher who is firm because she 
has the assurance and power of one who knows and 
knows that she knows. She is not a slave to the book. 
But she can watch the eyes of her class and rivit their 
attention because she has the freedom of the master and 
the stock in trade of the rich. The student, the ever 
ready barometer, begins to take note, to admire, and 
to respect his teacher because he realizes she is mighty. 
This power will begin to awaken an interest in the 
student. Life begets life, power begets power, an air 
of business permeates the room. Discipline is largely 
solved. School work begins to move and to grow. 

That teacher who teaches all she knows fails. When 
the teacher gives out all she has she looses her class. 
Interest wanes when the bottom is sounded. Potential 
ability is the most powerful. We like to buy where 
there is plenty left. The student likes to learn where 
the store-house of knowledge is so full it runs over. 

A teacher thus equipped with knowledge as a rule has 
self control that controls the student because she has 
the assurance that wins both her own confidence and 
the confidence of her pupils. Such a teacher is sym- 
pathetic and orderly because her knowledge is mature 
enough to take method and crystallize and to classify. A 
teacher so well equipped becomes the real teacher, the 



38 Guide Posts For The School Room 

inspiration, the life, the sympathetic friend of the pupil 
and not the grumbler, the task master, the slave-driver, 
the time killer, the life destroyer. 

The impress upon the child-life of some strong per- 
sonality that has been developed by broad scholarship 
can never be fully estimated. It is claimed by some 
thinkers that it is more important from whom you learn 
than it is what you learn. Every boy and every girl 
needs the influence and inspiration that comes from 
some strong personality. Unless the teacher is some- 
thing he will be unable to teach much. 

Let us have teachers that apply themselves to the 
task of teaching so well that they are full of their sub- 
jects — so full that what is not said gives weight, and 
power, and force to what is said. Let us have teachers 
that know the heredity and the environment of their 
pupils so well that, they know every inclination, every 
capability, and every avenue of approach. Then let us 
have teachers so full of interest in humanity that they 
lose themselves in the love of their work, the work of 
lighting up the souls of boys and girls. 



VI 

THE ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON 

ALTHOUGH it is one of the first and most fund- 
amental functions in all the teaching process, 
the assigning of the lesson is one of the least 
considered. Few authors mention it at all and few 
teachers devote any time to it. Nevertheless to tell the 
student to take the next page or the next lesson in a 
subject that is entirely new to him and then send him 
to his seat to learn it if? like sending one into the dark 
without a light to find something that he does not 
know. And yet how often the lesson is assigned in these 
words : ' ' Take the next page ; go to your seat. ' ' Such 
an assignment may be accompanied by the instructive 
remark ''and study your lessons," or it may not. Too 
often the next page is assigned with such inaccuracy 
that the student reasons a half page will do as well; 
and with such indifference on the part of the teacher 
that the student knows it makes very little difference 
on the part of the teacher if he does not get that. 

The purpose for assigning a lesson at all is that a 
certain amount of work may be properly prepared by 
a student till a stated time, and that at that time, the 

39 



40 Guide Posts Foa The School Room 

student may recite the lesson learned to the teacher. It 
is of no small consequence to be exact in the assignment 
of the lesson. It means business to know exactly what 
you have to do. It quickens interest in the student 
when he knows exactly what is required of him. We 
usually get from people about what we expect. And 
unless we expect something exactly from a student we 
will more than likely not get anything exactly. Ac- 
curacy begets accuracy. The lack of accuracy on the 
part of the teacher in the assignment of the lesson be- 
gets inaccuracy, indifference, and idleness on the part 
of the students in the preparation of that lesson. 

It is very true that the teacher must have due regard 
for the length of the lesson in making the assi?:nment. 
It should not be too long nor too short. To make it too 
long burdens the child. If thfe load is too heavy, he 
becomes discouraged. He cannot properly prepare, 
and he finds himself underneath instead of on top — a 
bad position for work, and work that will count. On 
the other hand the lessons should not be too short. To 
make the lesson too short means to do little at most. 
Some times when we make a task too small it dulls in- 
terest as much as to make it too large. And it often 
happens in life that we do not do a small task as well 
as we do a large one. But it is a serious mistake to 
give a child four pages for a lesson when he cannot 
properly prepare two pages. Wherever it is possible 
and practical make the lesson a unit in thought. But 
be sure to tell exactly what the lesson is and just how 
it is to be recited. 



The Assignment of The Lesson 41 

An assignment of the lesson should include an intro- 
duction to that lesson. This may mean giving the set- 
ting of the lesson so the student may have some know- 
ledge of intelligent approach. Or it may mean, and 
often does mean making the connection between the old 
and the new lesson — showing how the new is like or 
unlike the old, showing how it is old principles newly 
applied. It may consist in pointing out all the new 
things in the new lesson and their peculiarities, if they 
present any, and how to meet them. For example, the 
little child who is making his first way into reading 
should be told, or led to find out, all the new words in 
the coming lesson. The older student should be shown 
when he comes to multiplication for the first time exact- 
ly how to do the thing and also that it is only a short 
method of addition — a thing he has already been told, 
etc. A. jocular friend of mine once remarked to me: 
''The reason I never went to school much was because 
I had to pa.y the teacher to teach me and then the 
teacher wanted me to study it all out." Said he: "I 
didn't want to do that. I didn't want to pay the 
teacher to teach me a thing and then he require me to 
study it cut for myself.'' Everj^body knows that while 
what my friend said sounds logical, there is very little 
sound philosophy in it. But every one knows that un- 
less the teacher can aid the student in studying, the 
teacher will fall far short of his opportunity; and the 
best time to aid the student in studying is before the 
studying begins — during the assignment. This aid will 
be given if the proper introduction is made. 



42 Guide Posts For The School Room 

Did you ever hear a person introduced to an audience 
after this fashion: ''Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mr. 
Jones. He may find 3^ou all out the best way he can." 
Many times, too often, the little child is left in the same 
condition, to find out the lesson the best way he can; 
and it often is at a time when the little fellow has few 
means at his command for finding out. 

There is, however, a serious danger in an introduc- 
tion and in our prescription for study of telling too 
much. To tell too much is a mistake that should be 
carefully guarded. To tell the story makes it ever after 
an old story. It puts the student on the stool of do- 
nothing because the work is done. It robs the student 
of finding out for himself, of becoming a hero as a stu- 
dent. But in all of our telling in the assignment of the 
lesson tell just enough to put the student on a working 
basis. 

W]>ile we are telling exactly what the lesson is, and 
how it is to be recited and making our introduction so 
the student will know how to study let us be sure to do 
all this so we will create in the child's mind a vital in- 
terest in the lesson. Interest is the best leader into any 
and all study. Hence interest should be aroused in the 
lesson in the assignment without fail. Point out the 
importance attached to the lesson. Indicate some of 
its real value. Speak of its beautiy. Ask some ques- 
tions that will arouse the interest of the class so the 
members of the class will be eager to know the answers 
and tell them they can be found in the lesson. Tell a 
little of the lesson in a way that will catch the child 



The Assignment of The Lesson 43 

and hold his interest. Then ask vital questions that 
you leave for them to consider and to answer. Be 
earnest, be specific, be enthusiastic, be pleasant, be alive 
that the students may go to their seats from the recita- 
tion with a burning desire to study, and to learn the 
next lesson that has just been assigned. 



vn 

TEACHING THE LESSON 

MANY things can best be defined by telling what 
they are not. This method may help us in get- 
ting more clearly in mind what teaching is, 
since other processes are so often taken for teaching. 
Hearing the lesson is not teaching. The teacher (?) of- 
ten says that she was hearing the gramar lesson or the 
geography lesson when so and so happened. It may be 
that she was, and very likely she was hearing the les- 
son but that is not teaching the lesson, not at all. Hear- 
ing is passive but teaching is active, as we shall learn. 
Telling is not teaching. We may tell a great many 
things but we teach a much smaller number. I saw a 
crowd of ladies a few days ago returning from a club 
meeting and it seemed to me that all were telling some- 
thing at the same time, but I am confident that no one 
was taught. Telling is not teaching. I saw a lady 
teaching some children to read. She had told one boy 
all the words on the first sixty pages of the book, but 
when a test was made to find the number of words 
taught it was found that she had taught one and only 
one and that word was '*it." When the child was asked 

44 



Teaching The Lesson 45 

to reproduce what he had been taught he called *'it'' by 
its name, but he called **on," "in" and ''in," '*on" 
and *'was," ''saw," and the larger words he could not 
call. The teacher told him dozens of words but she 
taught him only one. 

If teaching is not hearing the lesson and if it is not 
telling, what is teaching? Teaching is the process of 
causing one to know what he did not know before. 
Teaching is the successful transferring of knowledge. 
Teaching is both productive and receptive. It is pro- 
ductive on the part of the teacher and receptive on the 
part of the learner. There can be no teaching where 
there is no learning. It is claimed by scientists that 
there can be no sound where there is no ear. There 
can be no teaching where there is no ear, eye, or any 
other avenue used in approaching the brain. Teaching 
is the process of placing something in the mind of an- 
other in such a way that it finds lodgment. 

The two senses almost entirely used in teaching are 
the senses of seeing and hearing. Too often hearing is 
used alone. The more effective way to teach is to teach 
through the eye instead of the ear. We understand 
and remember much more of what we see than we do of 
what we hear. Every one has heard the expression: 
"It went in at one ear and out at the other," but few, 
if any, ever heard the expression, "It went in at one 
eye and out at the other. " It is easier for knowledge to 
go in at the eye than at the ear and not so easy to get 
out. It is claimed by those who have made investiga- 
tions that we remember one-tenth of what we hear, ^ye- 



46 Guide Posts For The School Room 

tenths of what we write, seven-tenths of what we see, 
and nine-tenths of what we do. According to these 
statements the ratio of hearing and seeing is one to 
seven in favor of seeing. 

There are many ways of reducing to sight what is 
usually taught through hearing. One good teacher of 
the writer would often say to his class when we failed 
to grasp a principle iu arithmetic, ' ' Let me draw a figure 
and explain" — meaning by figure some plot or diagram. 
And when he drew that figure he had very little trouble, 
usually, in making clear what before was unseen and 
unknown. A diagram will show the relation between 
parts of a sentence through the eye as it can never be 
shown through the ear. Think for a moment how much 
geography we learn and learn not to forget from look- 
ing for a few minutes at a map. Many times the ab- 
stract and difficult may be pictured, made concrete, and 
hence made easy as it is given to the mind through the 
eye. 

In order for the teacher to bring the matter taught 
and the miad of the one taught into such vital relation- 
ship that the matter finds lodgment in the mind of the 
student, the teacher should know both the matter and 
the mind. She must be familiar enough with the matter 
to define it, to describe it, to analyze it, to tell about it 
in terms known to the mind of the one taught. A 
teacher can never teach well what she does not know. 
She can never teach well what she does not know well. 
Neither can she lodge something in a child's mind un- 
less she knows enough of the mind to make the con- 



Teaching The Lesson 47 

nection. ''We can never make others know our know- 
ledge unless we can comprehend their ignorance." 

Just here many mistakes are made in teaching. The 
teacher takes too much for granted. She supposes the 
student to know things that he does not know. Here 
she begins to build before laying a foundation. She 
fails in teaching because she fails to make plain the 
simple. Teaching consists in going from the known to 
the unknown. So often the teacher tries to go from 
the unknown to the unknown, and when she does, she 
fails — there is no connection. It is folly to ask a stu- 
dent what direction New York is from Greenwich if he 
does not know what nor where Greenwich is, nor any- 
thing about direction, to say nothing of New York. First 
teach him about Greenwich and directions, and then 
talk about the direction of New York from Greenwich. 
The chances are that he will then have enough to do to 
find New York. Begin at the beginning and take one 
step at a time. Do not try to climb the ladder by be- 
ginning at the top. 

''We build the ladder by which we rise, 

And we mount to its summit round by round. '^ 

The serious fact is that if we do not begin at the bottom 
and mount round by round we do not mount at all. 

Too much of our so-called teaching starts nowhere 
and goes nowhere. It is just words, words, words with- 
out arrangement or direction or aim. The teacher must 
have some plan to be followed, some goal to be reached, 



48 Guide Posts For The School Room 

and then proceed logically to follow that plan, unfold- 
ing the truth in an intelligent and intelligible manner 
as she goes, till the goal is reached and the banner of 
possession is driven down securely. Do not drift, sail. 

Do not lead the student, let him go, but direct him. 
He will follow blindly so long as you lead him. Do not 
carry him. To carry him is much worse than to lead 
him. If you carry him, he will soon become a weakling 
and an imbecile. Let him walk. Do not drag him. If 
you drag him, he will become bruised and bleeding and 
discouraged. His capacity for learning will be reduced 
and he will become disqualified for being taught. 

The child is never taught and taught properly till 
the lesson is classified and related to what is already 
in the child's mind so the mind seizes the new matter 
v/ith a firm mental grasp. This relation between the 
old and the new should be made close enough for the 
student to get a clear comprehension before the teach- 
ing ceases. Teach him to see the cause and the effect 
and how the cause produces the effect. Teach him the 
whole and the parts that make the whole and how the 
parts fit into the whole. Teach him to distinguish the 
important and the non-essential and why one part is 
more important than another. Use any and all these 
methods till the lesson is taught. Drill, drill, drill, till 
the child has a clear, firm, and fijxed conception of the 
lesson taught. 



vin 

T^NO KINDS OF BOOKS 

IT IS said that every one should carry witli him, or 
have close at hand two kinds of books — one out of 
which he gets something and one into which he puts 
something. Almost every class and condition of people, 
people who follow all kinds of work find time or have 
time thrust upon, as it were, that they might spend 
pleasantly and profitably by reading some good book. 
They might read while they wait for the train, while 
tiey wait for the "other party to an engagement, while 
they wait through the interum between this, that, and 
the other. 

The companion for the book out of which you get 
something is the book into which you put something. 
Few minds that do much thinking can be relied upon 
for a memorandum or bulletin board. 

''Where the memory prevails 
Much fruit of understanding fails." 

No mind is so constituted that it can retain all it 
learns. No mind is so constituted that it will retain all 

49 



50 Guide Posts For The School Room 

that is important and should be remembered. How of- 
ten we see things and hear things that are too good to 
lose or too important to forget! Thus it is that every 
one has need of a memorandum or book into which you 
put things. 

The student the pupil in school, whose sole business 
it is to learn things and keep them after he has learned 
them has special need for two kinds of books. 

It is generally admitted that he needs books out of 
which he gets things, and he does. That is his business 
— getting things. But it is also his business to retain 
what he gets. For what shall it profit a student if he 
shall learn all knowledge and forget what he learns? 
It is true that many things the student learns he for- 
gets and he could not be expected to retain them; or 
it is sometimes stated he is not expected to be a walking 
encyclopedia. But how often the important, the should- 
be-never-forgotten, if learned at all, is lost with the 
learning. The core, the gist, the outline, the important 
of all books out of which we get things should be care- 
fully and systematically written in the book into which 
we put things. 

If we realize that we remember one-tenth of what 
we hear and five-tenths of what we write, we will see at 
once the importance of keeping a book into which we 
put things. The advantage of keeping such a book is 
at least five to one. Furthermore to look for that which 
should be noted is to study as the student ought. And 
to write down in a book — a note book — ^what we have 



Two Kinds of Books 51 

learned is to fix firmly and accurately in the mind what 
we have learned. 

In many schools, rural schools especially, too little 
written work is done. And in many more too little 
carefully written work is done. We develop most by 
doing a thing when we do that thing the best we can. 
The keeping of a nice note book, the keeping of a note 
book in shape to retain, has within the keeping splen- 
did training. In such keeping we call into use formula- 
tion, composition, capitalization, and punctuation. 
''Writing makes an exact scholar." This is a quality 
that is so essential and yet wanting in so many. Ac- 
curacy and rentention both plead for note books in 
school. 

Note books are usually kept by college students but 
they should be kept by the high school and public school 
students as well. I believe every student in the fourth 
grade should start at the beginning of the session a 
note book for every subject he studies. I really believe 
that every student in all grades should have a note 
book. Certainly every public school student should 
keep note books on the work he does during the last 
two years of his public school course. And these should 
be a complete compendium of all that is most important 
and best in the course. The student by writing the 
important parts of the books he reads into his note 
books impresses these parts upon his mind with ac- 
curacy ,and makes an ever-ready reference for himself 
of all that is biggest and best of what he has read. 



IX 

PLAYTIME AND HOW TO USE IT 

JUST as the pendulum ©f the clock goes in one direc- 
tion that it may go an equal distance in the op- 
posite direction and by this process of movement 
keeps on running, so there are in life many states and 
activities that have actions and counter actions — one 
necessary to the other and both necessary to life and 
its developments. We need to sleep at night that we 
may be the wider awake in the day time. Wakefulness 
is necessary for sleep ; sleep is necessary for wakeful- 
ness. One is necessary for the other and both 
are necessary for life and its success. Some 
of the finer feelings work in a similar way. 
We are never quite so completely ready to laugh as 
when we cry. The demand and the best effect of one 
is secured from the reaction of the other. The same 
connection that drives the one, pulls the other in, and 
the process of change and interchange keeps alive our 
sentimental feelings. Just so work and play are com- 
plementary travelling companions. One can never exist 
in its best form without the aid of the other. That 
pupil or that school of pupils that has kept quiet and 

52 



Play Time and How to Use It 53 

worked for some time is only making ready to that ex- 
tent for an equal and opposite reaction. And the work 
can not be done and done well long unless its compani- 
on, play, comes in to give the release and rest. Hence 
play has an important place in our daily program. 

Play is not a necessary evil as it is sometimes thought 
to be. That little child that is sliding down the ban- 
isters, that is dragging the rug out of doors, that is 
turning somersaults on mother's best bed is making 
brawn and muscle and tissue, the warp and woof of 
physical powers and strength. Modern education 
stands first of all for the strong physical man and then 
the mental and the moral. For we realize and know that 
these are so related, interwoven, and dependent one up- 
on the others that no one can suffer without the others 
suffering and the entire person being the loser. No 
part of the man can live to itself and no part can die 
to itself. 

This universal and fundamental demand for play has 
called for a regular place in the daily program of our 
schools for play — the playtime — and certainly an im- 
portant one it is. For indeed, ''All work and no play 
makes Jack a dull boy.'' All work and no play 
will make a dull pupil out of any boy whether his name 
be Jack, John, or Jim. This being true, all the pupils 
ought to play at playtime. For of all places, the school 
is one of the places where we do not want dull boys or 
girls. And if the school finds any such pupils in its 



54 Guide Posts For The School Room 

number, then it is the schoors business to develop them 
out of their dullness. 

''Work while you work 
And play while you play, 
For that's the way 
To be happy and gay.'' 

This little verse has in its lines much sound doctrine 
and wholesome advice. But many teachers fail because 
they insist on the injunction of the first line and neg- 
lect utterly the second. The rich reward that is declar- 
ed in the last two lines is not offered on a half compli- 
ance but upon a whole as is set forth in both lines. 
Then the teacher should insist on play at playtime for 
the playtime is made to play in and that is the way to 
use it. But how often the teacher at playtime crouches 
down beside the stove and stays there. Or takes a long 
walk alone and leaves the school to disorder and destruc- 
tion. What the teacher should do is to be just as much 
in charge during playtime as worktime. 

We believe one of the best ways to conduct the longest 
play period, the noon hour, is to have the first part of 
the hour for the lunch. Use about ten or fifteen min- 
utes, whatever is necessary, for eating lunches. Let 
baskets and buckets be distributed, all seated, and take 
lunch in a free and easy but orderly way. The teacher 
will, of course be the logical toast master. Make the 
period a pleasant one. Talk about the topics of the 
day and other things of interest and profit. When the 



Play Time and How to Use It 55 

lunch period is over, all go out together and all play 
together, all stay out together or in such groups as 
sizes and sexes will dictate. 

Such a plan will eliminate running into and out of 
the house or staying in the house when the time has 
come for going out of doors. You would make, of 
course, such exceptions as sickness and other irregu- 
larities would require. 

Let it he well understood that every one on the play 
ground must play. If it is not there already, create 
the play spirit. Organize the different ages into play 
groups. Lead the game if it becomes necessary. Keep 
the game moving and moving lively. Idleness is the 
devil's workshop and it is just as true, or more so, on 
the play ground as in the school room. Use games that 
require several to play that all may have a part, such 
as base ball, basket ball, base, etc. Do away with that 
hanging around that a few want to do. They are the 
fellows, if let alone, that do things that ought not to 
be done; and then, too, they are missing the benefit of 
the playtime. 

To do all this the teacher may have to make some pre- 
paration in the way of enlarging the grounds or by 
equipping what she already has. If there is land 
enough in the school grounds use some for grass and 
flowers. But if there be not enough also for play, then 
use grounds for play alone. The grounds are made for 
the pupils and not the pupils for the grounds. The 
playtime is an important hour, make it count. 



56 Guide Posts For The School Room 

It is on the play grounds that the teacher learns the 
student as he is. There the student shows his real self. 
And for the teacher not to know her pupils means for 
her to succeed in part only, at best. And on the play 
ground is one of the very best places for the teacher to 
form that vital relationship with the student that is so 
necessary for her real leadership. Indeed ''That teach- 
er who sits upon a platform of assumed dignity and 
answers ov.v questions by 'yes' and 'no' and gives sage 
advice about our conduct has little influence upon us in 
school or outside of it." But on the other hand, that 
teacher who becomes a leader on the play ground, though 
it be by watchful and interested supervision, has the 
vantage ground with her pupils everywhere. The writer 
had some large school boys to come to him in town to 
praise their teacher in the country. On visiting the 
school, I found them reciting an English Grammar les- 
son, and doing splendid work, with perfect order and 
with a respect toward the teacher that was beautiful. 
In a few minutes recess came, and although the March 
wind blew like it was in a monstrous hurry to get 
through if possible before April came, the little teacher 
was seen deep in her cap and jacket on the ball field 
cheering and encouraging every effort made by a crowd 
of young giants. They would follow her anywhere 
whether it be in the field of literature, history, or 
science, because she had won their spirits and admira- 
tion on the ball field. 

Not alone does the playtime prepare the student for 
books but it is at playtime upon the play ground that 



Play Time and How to Use It 57 

the pupil gets some of his best training and learns some 
of his most valuable lessons. It is here that the timid 
learn to take initiative. It is here the rough and dar- 
ing are ruled and regulated. It is here that both learn 
to take defeat and victory as every one should — ^to not 
be cast down in defeat nor overcome with joy in vic- 
tory. He learns also to think and to think quickly. He 
learns to think and to think ahead. He learns to use his 
own head and to act upon his own judgment. By these 
several processes the will is developed, and character is 
fashioned. 

Then have playtime and use it as you should, to play 
ifi. Work while you work and play while you play, 
for this is the v/ay to make school the most pleasant 
and the most profitable. 



X 

DISCIPLINE 

SO important is discipline in school that most peo- 
ple judge a school almost entirely by the success 
or failure with which the teacher meets as a dis- 
ciplinarian. Certainly we can not easily imagine a good 
school and it poorly managed or governed. We cannot 
have much system and business of any kind where 
chaos, confusion, and disorder reign. "Order is 
heaven's first law." And Mr. Page very truthfully 
says that order is scarcely more essential to the harmony 
of heaven than it is to the happiness and success of the 
school. ''"Without order pupils cannot give attention, 
without attention they cannot learn." Hence order, 
which is the very fruit of proper discipline, is at least 
necessary in the school room before we can begin to 
hope for any sort of success. 

How do we get this prime necessity of the school 
room, to whom shall we look for it? The teacher. It 
is written in her face. It is in her very bearing. It 
is in every motion — in her hand shake, in her work. 
The child sees it; he feels it before she speaks. 

58 



Discipline 59 

Certainly the teacher largely wins or loses as a dis- 
ciplinarian in the very beginning. ''The husband who 
starts in his matrimonial career as lieutenant never gets 
promotion." ''A teacher is rarely promoted in a 
school who has not won his position in school at the 
close of the first day." And we are sometimes con- 
strained to believe that the position is won or lost the 
first hour. 

''One ship drives east, another west 
By the self same winds that blow. 
It is the set of the sail and not the gale 
That tells us where we go.'' 

That teacher who proceeds to work while there is any 
degree of disorder in her room will continue to have 
disorder still. There is much sound doctrine in the 
old adage: ''Be sure you are right and then go ahead." 
But the teacher is never right till she has order and let 
her not by any means go ahead till then. Then go 
ahead in an orderly natural way. Speak in a good 
round but natural tone of voice. Do not pitch the voice 
up. Remember that the teacher's tongue is the tuning 
fork for the school room; and in whatever key you 
pitch your voice the students will make their noise. 
Sing in "C" natural, and then you can go higher or 
lower with ease and effect. 

That teacher who would succeed as a disciplinarian 
must first of all be complete master of self. That 
teacher who would control others must have self under 



60 Guide Posts For The School Room 

easy control. He or she has lost when the cool head is 
lost. There must be a majesty, a coolness, a calmness 
about the teacher to command respect and obedience. 
Keep reserve force always. That teacher who by angry 
exertion reveals the extremity of his power has reduced 
himself to failure and ridicule. Never let the student 
sound the depths of your power, and he will remain a 
subject of your will. 

Put every pupil on a busy program and keep him 
there. Have something for everybody to do and have 
everybody doing something. Satan is sure to find work 
for idle brains and idle hands. Handle the room or 
the room will hand you. Know thyself, know the 
pupils; know the lessons and how to organize all in 
such a vital way that the student will find himself im- 
mensely busy with the day's business. 

Talk up the work. Keep it in the forefront. Make 
it prominent. Make it so interesting that the student 
will find interest in it. Talk much about the work. 
Say very little about rules and conduct. Let the most 
prominent thing in all the school be the one thing you 
came there to do. 

Be definite and consistent in all you do. If a teacher 
is indefinite and talks in a may-be-this sort of way or 
may-be-that and thus makes the impression that she 
hardl.y knows what should be done and that any old 
thing and any old way will do, almost anything that is 
wrong will soon be done. But on the other hand if 
the teacher is definite, says an exact thing in an exact 
n^anner, liolds up the standard of exactness, accuracy, 



Discipline 61 

and pimctxiality day by day, not this way today and 
some other way tomorrow, soon things will be in their 
proper place at proper time and in the proper order. 

A number of teachers fail because they go in little 
storms. They storm around for a while and then the 
calm sets in. While the storm is on new rules are made, 
strong threats are made in a violent manner. When 
the calm sets in the rules are forgotten even by the 
teacher. The school runs wild and there is no hand to 
stay. 

Then whatever the attitude or position taken by the 
teacher, he must be firm and consistent in maintaining 
it. If one cog in the wheel is allowed to slip there will 
be required double the power to keep others from slip- 
ping. 

No teacher will succeed long without tact. The teach- 
er without tact will spring issues that should never be 
sprung. He will trouble trouble that will trouble the 
school that never should have been troubled. There 
goes a story that a teacher returned from the noon 
hour play to the school room and found on the black- 
board, ''Mr. Jones is a mule.'' — Jones being the teach- 
er's name. Mr. Jones added one word and then it read, 
"Mr. Jones is a mule driver," and the joke was off the 
teacher and on the boy or boys who wrote it. There 
was no court, no criminal, no issue, no trial; but there 
was a teacher with a little sense of humor, a little tact 
that turned what might have been serious trouble into a 
mere little pleasantry. Tact comes from the word 
''tango," meaning to touch. Tact, then, is the science 



62 GuroE Posts For The School Room 

that teaches us how to touch or deal with people. This 
is an important science for the teacher who would suc- 
ceed as an instructor or as a disciplinarian. Study it, 
use it. 

Last, but not least, that teacher who would succeed as 
a disciplinarian must be kind. Firmness and kindness 
are twins in the world of school discipline ; but if there 
be any difference in these, may we say kindness is the 
greater. It may be out of order to compare these quali- 
ties, both of which are so essential — I suppose it is. But 
where will kindness not go? Who has a heart within 
him that kindness and love will not reach? 



'<Love rules the court, the camp, the grove. 

And men below and saints above. 

For love is heaven and heaven is love." 



Kindness is universal in its adaptation to all classes 
and conditions. Kindness and love will often bring the 
rough and disobedient into obedience and co-operation. 
There comes to my mind a young man who was too 
rough and rowdy for school. He left school. He was 
a menace to society at large. The father was reported 
to have said that he had washed his hands of this son, 
he was so bad. But soon a little lady came to the com- 
munity to teach, with the true spirit of the teacher, 
with a love for boys and girls that made her face beam 
with light and her soul overflow with kindness. She 
found the young fellow. She soon had him in school, 
in love with the school, in love with the teacher because 



Discipline 63 

she told him he could accomplish a man's part in the 
world and that she would gladly help him to do it. 
She was the very embodiment of courtesy and kindness 
to him always. May I make a long storj^ short by say- 
ing that he soon became a model student? Kindness 
had won a great victory. ^ ^ 

Be kind to the child and considerate of him. Mini- 
mize his faults and magnify his virtues. This can be 
done by being kind to him. Let the student not overcome 
you with evil but overcome the child with good. There 
is something good in the child, in the bad child, foster 
it with sunshine and showers of kindness. 

"Ill fares the school 
To hastening ills a prey 
Where the teacher is unkind, 
And the pupils go astray. ' ' 

Kindness never ridicules the child nor abuses his 
sense of justice and right. Instead of speaking slight- 
ly of a poor effort, it encourages a better effort. It 
does not call down upon the student the contemptuous 
remarks of his fellows and cause him to determine on 
an evil course and to swear vengeance against all. But 
if an issue must come, and even punishment must be 
administered, kindness will be considerate. It will take 
time to explain and to reason with the child. It will 
weigh every point. And although the teacher may then 
have to lay on the rod '^so the laying on" will not soon 
be forgotten, if he is kind, he will not develop the worst 



64 Guide Posts For The School Room 

in the child, but he will bring into prominence the best ; 
he will win. Obedience of the best type will be produc- 
ed. Kindness secures that kind of obedience that grows 
and develops, that gets bigger and bigger and makes 
the student better and better. 



XI 
THE SCHOOL AND ITS ENVIEONMENT 

IT IS a significant and fundamental truth that is 
couched in the statement, ''Anything is what it is 
by virtue of its connection." It is rather easy to see 
that many things are modified and others are moulded 
and made by their surroundings or environment. One 
tree is one-sided by virtue of its proximity to another 
tree; another tree is round and symmetrical because it 
is not near any other tree. One tree is large because 
it grew in the rich valley. One town is manufacturing 
because it has water power ; another town is mining be- 
cause it has ore. And were it not for these two natural 
resources both towns themselves would not have been 
built. But in their stead we would see field or forest. 
And thus on and on we might trace such influences. 

Life is made possible by keeping up a connection be- 
tween whatever contains that life and its environment. 
Growth in life, and development is made possible by 
keeping up a very strong connection between that which 
contains the life and its environment. The fish must 
imbibe the water or he dies. The human being must 
breathe the air or he perishes. The plant must keep 

65 



66 Guide Posts For The School Room • 

its connection with mother earth or it passes away. 
Life and growth — a characteristic of life — are depend- 
ent upon there being a vital connection between the liv- 
ing and its environment. 

No school will live and grow and develop unless there 
is a strong and vital relation between it and its environ- 
ment. A school can no more exist without the support 
and co-operation of its surroundings than the birds of 
the air or the fish of the sea can live without feeding 
upon the elements of their respective regions. There is 
even a far greater need for a vital relationship between 
the school and community. Because the school exists 
for the community and therefore the community should 
be supporting and working for the school. It is a re- 
ciprocity business between the school and the commun- 
ity — a business of giving and taking. A school that 
would succeed and succeed most must reach out and 
touch and benefit the best way possible the most peo- 
ple. It must not pray the prayer for me and my wife, 
my son, John, and his wife, these four and no more if 
there are any more. A school should benefit every per- 
son in the community, it should strengthen every busi- 
ness in the community, it should feed and foster every 
community interest. The school is a social factor and 
benefactor. It has to do with the people and the peo- 
ple's interests. 

If the school is to be a living institution serving the 
people as it should, the teacher must know the commun- 
ity and the people and bring the two, the school and 
the people, into hearty vital co-operation. This can be 



The School and Its E'nvironment 67 

done only by the teacher going among the people. She 
must know them, know their conditions, their aspira- 
tions, their life. She must go with eyes open. She 
must go with hands and heart wide open ready to serve 
and to help. She can not do this and go to some show 
in a neighboring town one evening, somewhere else as 
remote from her work and people the next evening, and 
then go home to a distant neighborhood the next after- 
noon — on Friday to spend the week-end and not come 
back till late Monday morning. But on the other hand 
the teacher will be among her people — learning them, 
loving them, helping them, teaching them — literally 
busy about her Father's business. 

The teacher, if she is teaching in the country, will 
soon learn the way to the community church. If she 
can sing, and every teacher should be able to sing, she 
will help in the music. She will not treat the service as 
if it is their service but she will treat it like it is our 
service. One of the best places in all the world to learn 
people and to lead people is at the sacred shrine, where 
heart meets with heart and tears are mingled with tears. 
The teacher should weep with her people when they 
weep and rejoice with them when they rejoice. She 
should live with them and for them. 

She may, and many times should, direct the social 
life. Her presence often will add interest. It is easy 
as a rule for her to help in leadership. And should the 
social life be wanting, she can and should raise its 
standard and make it wholesome. 

The teacher should make the school a community 



68 Guide Posts For The School Koom 

center. Let it be the common meeting place for pleas- 
ant and profitable entertainments. Let it be the meet- 
ing place for an evening in music or recitation and also 
for weighty lectures of instruction on the vital issues 
of life and progress. The school should be a city set 
upon a hill sending forth light and life at all times to 
the people of all ages. 

The class room itself should grow out of and be adapt- 
ed to the community and the community life. The 
school should be of the communitj^ by the community, 
and for the community and should never be separated 
from it. The course of study should be determined to 
some extent by the community and its needs. The 
library should contain books bearing information upon 
the work and industries of the community. Illustra- 
tions should be gathered from the community and its 
life. Study geography at the school house door, down 
in the valley near by, and all around and about the 
school. Study the community history. Tie it up with 
other history. When you study arithmetic, measure 
the school room floor, the school grounds, the nearby 
plot or field. Measure the length of the road or street. 
Apply your work in the school room to the environment 
or surroundings; draw your illustrations from the com- 
munity because only known illustrations illustrate. Let 
there be the most vital co-operation between the school 
and the community that real light and life may be in 
constant exchange and both the school and the com- 
munity be built up and made bigger and better. 



xn 

THE FINAL FUNCTION OF THE SCHOOIi 

IN THE beginning God created the heaven and the 
earth. Day by day for five days God created the 
world and all the material things therein— the beasts 
of the field, the fish of the sea, and the fowls of the air. 
On the sixth day God created man in his own image ; and 
breathed into him the breath of life and man became a 
living soul. The creation of man marked the final func- 
tion in God's creation— the climax of his handiwork. 

As in the work of creation, just so in the work of the 
school room, with all its equipment, with all its material, 
and with all its work, and all its methods of work, the 
final function of the school is the making of a man. 
''First of all," said President Garfield, when a boy, 'I 
must make mvself a man; if I do not succeed in that, 
I can succeed in nothing." As there is nothing great 
in the world but man, there is nothing really great m 
man but character, says one writer. 

The real thing in man by which he may be designated 
is character. Character may be more fully defined by 
contrasting it with its synonym-reputation. Character 
is what you are ; reputation is what you are thought to 

60 



70 Guide Posts For The School Room 

be. Character is the real, vital, valuable part of man. 
It is what we seek to build and to build properly. 

How, then, is character built, and out of what is it 
formed? These are most important questions for both 
pupil and teacher. "Character is the joint product of 
nature and culture." What we are is determined by a 
little bundle of tendencies called inheritance given to 
us to start life, plus those impressions made upon us 
by the things around us or culture. 

Some times culture is taken to be a kind of garment, 
something with which to cover the individual. But let 
us note the fact and appreciate it anew, that when we 
are adding culture to the child we are building charac- 
ter, making the real man, and not merely making a 
cloak for his cover — a coat that he can put on or take 
off. ''Sow a thought and you reap an act; sow an act 
and you reap a habit ; sow a habit and you reap a char- 
acter, ' ' 

This syllogism proves on the principle, things equal 
to the same thing are equal to each other, that as a man 
thinketh in his heart, so is he. Then it follows that the 
work of the teacher is to get the pupil to think right 
thoughts; and we, the teachers, can get the student to 
think right thoughts if we can inspire in him the desire 
to want to be and to want to be something worth while. 
This is often done by a beautiful story containing a 
moral. It is often done in the little more advanced 
grades or intermediate grades by holding up a hero. 
The waters of the soul are often moved by a great truth 
as taught in logical science or expressed in rhythmical 



The Final Function of The School 71 

literature. The student sees the moral lesson in the 
story, he admires the bravery of the hero, he thinks, he 
wants to be that way ; or he wants to do like the hero ; 
or the student may see the beauty of truth and good- 
ness as manifested in science or literature and be stirred 
with a longing to want to kow more, to want to be bet- 
ter, and to want to do more good in the world. "Bless- 
ed is he that hungers and thirsts after righteousness for 
he shall be filled." Blessed is that teacher who has 
caused her student to hunger and thirst after truth, 
right, and righteousness for she has started the process 
that will make a man. For ''you will be what you will 

to be." 

No one can be closely associated with truth without 
becoming in a measure truthful; and no one can pursue 
truth far without finding God and his relation to God; 
and if he finds God and learns his true relation to God 
he becomes a man indeed and takes the place of a man 
and plays the part of a man. It is told that a student 
who was not a Christian, saw through the study of 
geology the history of years and ages written securely 
in the bosom of the earth as he studied strata laid upon 
strata; and then he went out upon the fair fields and 
through the science of botany he was enabled to classify 
the flowers and learn of their symmetry, delicacies, and 
beauty; from there he went through the science of 
astronomy and the use of the telescope up into the 
heavens and saw there worlds galloping over worlds in 
perfect harmony and system. In the earth, on the 
earth, and above the earth— everywhere— he saw the 



72 Guide Posts For The School Room 

great conceptions and great work of an all-wise and 
all-powerful Creator, and thus being brought face to 
face with God, baring his head he exclaimed fo*- the first 
time in his life: ''Here, let us pray.* 

"Tis only noble to be good; 
Kind hearts are more than coronets 
And simple faith than Norman blood. ' ' 

In the making of a man we need more formation and 
conservation, and less reformation. It is economy of 
time and effort as well as work accomplished to pursue 
the proper course from the beginning rather than the 
wrong one and have to retrace, destroy, and begin again. 
We can pass but one way at this time and it is extreme- 
ly essential that the direction be toward the proper 
goal. It is possible for us to acquire an art only be- 
cause when we do a thing we have at once a tendency 
to do that thing again, or to act in a similar v-ay. Then 
how serious it is to pursue the wrong path or do the 
wrong thing. We have not only lost, because of wrong 
doing, but we find ourselves wanting to do wrong again 
and make the loss even greater. A little child can far 
better afford to learn to read one sentence correctly 
than to learn to read three incorrectly. 

It was this same great principle, just a little further 
applied that the man had in mind when he said, "I am 
afraid of nothing on the earth, or under the earth, or 
above the earth, but to do wrong." He was afraid be- 
cause he knew that to do wrong brings destruction and 



The Final Function op The School 73 

death, that the wages of sin (not may be), but is death 
and that furthermore that he would find himself in the 
way of wrong* doing and wanting to do wrong again. 
We need more formation and less reformation. 

The little boy, just in this same way, realized his ir- 
reparable loss when his father drew the last nail from 
the post. It is very likely that you have heard the 
story. A father had a mischievous boy — permit me to 
say a bad boy. Father did not believe that the boy 
really knew how bad he was nor the bad record he was 
making. The father believed that if the son could really 
see the bad record he was making, that he would become 
disgusted and turn from his evil ways. So the father 
conceived the idea of keeping a record of the boy's 
deeds on a post in the front yard in easy view. Said 
the father: ''Son, every time you do a bad deed I shall 
drive a nail into this post and every time you do a good 
deed I will pull out a nail. And in this way we will 
keep a balance sheet of your conduct right here before 
us all the time." It is almost needless to say the post 
was soon nearly full of nails. But we are glad to say, 
too, it had the desired effect. The boy saw his record, 
and that which is within ourselves that causes us to 
want to raise ourselves above ourselves, asserted itself 
within this boy and he said: ''I will change that rec- 
ord." And he did. He did good deeds till all the nails 
were drawn save one. The father called the son to the 
post and said: "You see all the nails are gone except 
one and I am going to draw that one, and give you a 
clear record." Here when the father expected the son 



74 Guide Posts For The School Room 

to rejoice with him the son burst into tears. The 
father said : ' ' Son, why do you weep ? — the nails are all 
out." "Yes," said the son, ''The nails are all out but 
the sears are there yet." 

*'0f all sad words of tongue or pen, 

The saddest are these: 'It might have been.' *' 

If it is to fill its greatest mission, the school must deal 
in formation to the exclusion of reformation. 

If the school is to do what it should in the making of 
men and women, if it is to turn out the quality and the 
quantity, it must look closely after the health and 
strength of both mind and body of its students. The 
only time we can save a thing is before it is wasted. 
It is a good thing that our courses of study contain 
books on hygiene and sanitation made so elementary 
that they can be used in the lower grades — in the form- 
ative period of the child's life. Let us rejoice that the 
day of medical inspection of school children has reach- 
ed us. Every teacher should be in addition to what the 
physician does, a medical inspector of her school every 
day. Look closely after the light, heat, and ventilation 
of the room. Look closely after the adaptability of the 
desks to children's sizes. Look closely after the care 
and keeping of every child's eyes, ears, nose, throat, 
and teeth. Put into practice the laws of hygiene and 
sanitation in every day living with the children. Insist 
on the observance of these laws closely if needs be. To 
make a man, to make the kind of man we may make, 



The Final Function of The School 75 

we must have a strong mind in a strong body. The 
mind and the body are both necessary to the strong 
man, and they are dependent one upon the other. To 
allow either to become impaired or crippled means to 
diminish the possibilities in the making of a man. 

'^I passed through a woodland meadow 

Where sweet the thrushes sing, 

And I found on a bed of mosses 

A bird with a broken wing. 

I healed its wound, and each morning 

It sang its old sweet strain, 

But the bird with a broken pinion 

Never soared as high again. 

'*I found a young life stricken 
With sin's seductive art. 
I touch with a Christ-like pity, 
I pressed him to my heart. 
He lived with a nobler purpose 
; And struggled not in vain, 

But the life that sin had stricken 
Never soared as high again. 

"The bird with a broken pinion 

Kept another from the snare. 

The life that sin had stricken 

Raised another from despair. ■. 

Each loss has its compensation, 

There is healing for every pain, 

But the bird with a broken pinion 

Never soared as high again.'' 

It is a serious thing to do wrong. It is a tragedy. 
We are often making pygmies when we should be mak- 



76 Guide Posts For The School Room 

ing powerful giants. It is the business of the school to 
take the child in the early morning of his life before 
sin has marred or Satain has marked, and to build it 
up and develop it in its strength and in its power, in 
its best potentialities, possibilities and in its purity. A 
story is told that two girls once played together and 
formed a fast friendship that never was broken. But 
being in a land of casts they were soon separated. One 
inherited the throne as queen; the other remained a 
pauper, the station in which she was born. The friend- 
ships of childhood are eternal. The friendship of early 
life took the pauper to visit the queen. That same 
friendship caused the queen to do her best to entertain 
her once little playmate. She showed her through the 
various dpartments of her handsome home with all their 
grandeur and splendid equipments. Then they were 
seated in the queen 's room and the queen began to enter- 
tain her playmate friend by showing her her jewels. 
She showed one jewel after another, one after another 
until a long exhibition of sparkle and splendor had 
b'^en made. And as the exhibition closed, the pauper 
lady turned and with the gentle gesture of the mother 
that smoothed the brow of her two little light-haired 
boys that she had brought by her side, she said, ' ' These, 
those are my jewels. '^ And they were jewels indeed if 
they were polished in all their purity and power. 

Have you not seen care and couthness take the place 
of carelessness and uncouthness in the child's own keep- 
ing of himself and his clothing? Have you not seen 
elasticity and firmness added to the step, sparkle to the 



The Final Function of The School 77 

eye, life and hope and a bright outlook added to the ex- 
pression as the polishing process proceeded ? Angels might 
well covet such a commission. But it was given to the 
school and the school teacher to take the jewels almost 
fresh from the hands of the Creator to polish them, to 
prepare them, to send them out on their mission of ser- 
vice, to work, to work the will of God in the world, to 
take their crucial polishing and then to go back home 
to the God who made them and the God who gave them, 
there to shine as diadems of Heaven and as jewels in 
the Master's crown. 

''If we work upon marble, it will perish,'' said Web- 
ster, "if upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear tem- 
ples, they will crumple into dust; but if we work upon 
immortal minds — if we imbue them with principles, 
with just fear of God and love of our fellowmen — ^we 
engrave on those tablets something which will brighten 
through all eternity." 

To make a man, to make a woman, was the climax of 
God's creation. To make a man, to make a woman, is 
the final function of the school and the school teacher. 
Teacher, can you do it? Yes, you can — you and God. 



Appendix 



PRACTICAL PRECEPTS 

(By the Author) 

1. Always be on time for lost time is never found. 

2. Plan your work and then work your plan. 

3. Have a time for each recitation that the student 
may know when and what to prepare. 

4. Prepare each lesson yourself before you teach it; 
for without special preparation you cannot teach it. as 
you should. 

5. Visit your patrons and pupils for it is necessary 
for you to know the students as they are. 

6. Govern yourself in a composed easy manner; for 
self control is the first essential in governing others. 

7. Never call your roll or begin any work until the 
entire room is quiet; for you are setting the standard 
of order for the day. 

79 



80 Guide Posts For The School Room 

8. Find work for every student every moment that 
you are in session ; for if you do not Satan will. 

9. Make few threats; for they will soon lose their 
force. 

10. Keep a cool head always ; for you can not afford to 
use any other kind. 

11. Put yourself on the playground throughout every 
play period; for your presence will add interest to the 
games, prevent friction and often avert serious trouble. 

12. Never assign work to be done on the grounds nor 
work in the text books as punishment; for by so doing 
you make the student to dread and shun what he should 
like and study. 

13. Begin at the opening of the school to improve 
house and grounds; for by this method the school faci- 
lities become ours to the students and they will protect 
them rather than destroy them. 

14. Kake each and every student to feel that you are 
his friend; because on no other relation can you govern 
so well and be able to give real genuine service. 

15. Secure the attention of every member in your 
class and hold it throughout the recitation; because at- 
tention is necessary for the reception of what is taught. 

16. Strive to create in the student a desire to know; 
for this will lead him into the realm of knowledge. 

17. Make everything taught as clear as possible and 
strive to appeal to the understanding ; for it is far more 



Practical Precepts 81 

important to cultivate the mind than to store the mem- 
ory. 

18. Make your teaching plain and practical by using 
apt illustrations; because these form a lattice work on 
which the vine of knowledge clings and hangs. 

19. Have frequent reviews in order to get the asso- 
ciation of the parts and to see the unity of the whole. 

20. Assign each new lesson accurately and in such a 
manner as will arouse interest; for interest is the fore- 
runner of close study. 

21. Don't talk too much yourself; but remember that 
it is the student that you are trying to develop and not 
the teacher. 

22. Keep up some solid enthusiasm ; for you will need 
it to take the school over the hard pulls. 

23. Put in enough time; because no one can do a whole 
day's work in a half day. 

24. Keep the school room neat and the grounds in 
order; for we are a part of all that we see. 

25. Keep complete and accurate records; for it is 
necessary for others to know what you have done. 

26. Consider carefully and coolly the criticisms made 
by the community of you and your work that you may 
find the truth and profit by your own mistakes. 

27. Be sure each day before leaving the house to at- 
tend carefully to the windows, fire, and door; because 



82 Guide Posts For The School Room 

the only time you can save a thing is before it is de- 
stroyed. 

28. Always be the last one to leave the house and 
grounds; for this is the only way that you can be sure 
that the day's work has received the proper finish. 



n 

MOTTOES FOE THE SCHOOL ROOM 

^'Hov/'er it be it seems to me, 

'Tis only noble to be good; 

Kind hearts are more than coronets 

And simple faith than Norman blood." 

** Truth is honest, truth is sure, 
Truth is strong and must endure." 

"A resolution that does not grow into a revolution 
is no good." 

"Lost time is never found." 

"Better an hour early than a minute late." 

"Have a place for everything and keep everything in 
its place." 

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we 
practice to deceive." 

83 



84 Guide Posts For The School Room 

"Politeness is to do and say 

The kindest thing in the kindest way." 

"Strive never to say cr never to do 
What is not strictly honest or true." 

"A good name is rather to be chosen than great 
riches." 

"He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, 
acts the best." 

"Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well." 

"It takes a life-time to build a good character. It 
may be lost in a minute." 

''Do all the good you can and don't make a fuss 
about it." 

"If I deceive, whom do I cheat?" 

"Paddle your own canoe." 

"The best way to be happy is to make others happy." 

"A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what is a 
heaven for?" 

"Where there is a will, there is a way." 



Mottoes For The School Room 85 

' ' Work while you work, 
And play while yon play, 
For that is the way 
To be happy and gay." 

"I am afraid of nothing on the earth, above the 
earth, or under the earth, but to do worng.'^ 

"Every man must educate himself, his book and his 
teachers are but helpers; the work is his/' 

'^Do right'' 

''Keep sweet." 

''Life is a book of which we have but edition." 

"Learning must be won by study." 

"Let there be enough shunshine in your life to make 
a glorious sunset." 

"Neither praise or dispraise thyself." 

"To be truly great one must be truly useful." 

"The secret to success is constancy to purpose," 

"The worries of today are often the jokes of tomor- 



86 Guide Posts For The School Room 

"The most unhappy people are those whose selfish- 
ness is greater than their charity." 

''Count that day lost 
Whose low descending sun 
Views from thy hand 
No worthy action done.'* 

''The path of duty must be trod 
If man would ever pass to God." 

"Try try again." 

"Find a way or make it." 

"There's nothing so kingly as kindness 
And nothing so royal as truth." 

"No man has come to true greatness who has not felt 
in some degree that his life belongs to his race and that 
what God has given him, He gives him for mankind." 

' ' When wealth is lost, nothing is lost ; 
When health is lost, something is lost; 
When character is lost, all is lost. ' ' 

"Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; 
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." 

"The soul should be master of the tongue." 



Mottoes For The School Room 87 

''Do you covet learning's prize? 
Climb her heights and take it. 
In ourselves our fortune lies — 
Life is what we make it." 



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